Charles Berolzheimer Net Worth 2026

Charles Berolzheimer is the sixth-generation pencil maker who revived the Blackwing pencil. He has run California Cedar Products Co. (CalCedar), the Stockton, California, family company that is the world's largest supplier of the wooden slats used in pencils, and he co-founded the Blackwing Foundation. No reputable publisher, including Forbes, Bloomberg or Celebrity Net Worth, has estimated his net worth, so this page does not give one.

What is Charles Berolzheimer's net worth?

An earlier version of this page said $18 million, with income of $600,000 a year "according to a survey." We found no survey and no reputable source for either number, so both have been removed. CalCedar is privately owned by the Berolzheimer family, and neither its profits nor how ownership is split within the family has been published.

What can be said is that the family's businesses span pencil slats, the Blackwing and Palomino pencil brands, cedar building products and a historical link to Duraflame firelogs. That points to long-standing family wealth. It does not tell us his personal share.

Where the money comes from

• California Cedar Products. The family company, founded in 1919, makes incense-cedar and basswood slats for pencil manufacturers around the world, sells pencil parts, and produces cedar siding and decking, according to Company Histories.
• Blackwing and Palomino. Premium pencil brands the company built after he bought the lapsed Blackwing trademark.
• Duraflame connection. CalCedar invented the Duraflame firelog in 1968 by mixing its sawdust with petroleum wax. Duraflame is now a separate business, Stanford Magazine reported.

Family history in pencils

The Berolzheimers made pencils in 19th-century Germany before the family business moved to the United States. An earlier Charles Berolzheimer went into the pencil business on his own in 1927 and moved west to California, according to Company Histories. Stanford Magazine describes today's Charles as a sixth-generation member of the pencil trade. His grandfather, Charles Philip Berolzheimer, received an honorary degree from the University of the Pacific in 1995.

Reviving the Blackwing

The original Eberhard Faber Blackwing 602, a pencil used by writers such as John Steinbeck, went out of production in 1998. Collectors paid up to $40 for a single pencil on eBay. CalCedar had started making premium pencils in 2005 with the Palomino. When fans urged Berolzheimer to bring back the Blackwing, he found the trademark had lapsed and bought it.

Purists complained that the first 2010 version was too soft and missing the old slogan, "Half the pressure, twice the speed." Berolzheimer told The Record in Stockton that he listened. The 2011 Blackwing 602 used a new graphite formula that he said lasts about 35% longer, a gray finish and the gold slogan. In 2011 he said sales on the company's Pencils.com site had been $150,000 in 2010, and he hoped they would reach $2 million to $5 million within four to five years. We found no later published sales figures.

Education

He holds a bachelor's degree in management science from the University of California, San Diego, and a master's in management from Stanford's Graduate School of Business, earned as a Sloan Fellow in 1994, according to The Record. The old page correctly named Stanford but added invented details about clubs and sports teams.

Family and philanthropy

Berolzheimer and his wife, Ginger, set up the Blackwing Foundation to support music and arts programs in elementary and high schools. The foundation has worked with Pacific's Brubeck Institute and Little Kids Rock on an Ignite the Arts program. Their sons, Philip and Thomas, both earned business degrees from the University of the Pacific, where Thomas also completed an MBA. Berolzheimer was 53 when he joined Pacific's board of regents in 2014, putting his birth around 1961. He has also been a director of the Mark Catesby Commemorative Trust, which supports natural history research, and a trustee of the Cate School in Carpinteria.

Recent changes (2025–2026)

In recent years Berolzheimer has written essays on a Substack called Timberlines, where he is described as steward of Blackwing pencils and founder of the Blackwing Foundation. We did not find reports of ownership changes at CalCedar or Blackwing.

Net worth compared

Other family-business owners profiled here include Charles Chrin and Carlo Trinchero, whose family runs Trinchero Family Estates. Like many multigenerational private companies, CalCedar's value and the family's wealth stay private. That is why estimates on the web are unreliable.

Why no figure is given

To estimate his net worth you would need CalCedar's revenue and profit, the value of the Blackwing brand, and how the family divides ownership. None of this is public. We will add a figure if a reputable outlet publishes one.